The End Of Brazilian Flair

Don’t just criticise Luiz Felipe Scolari for suddenly taking the Cachaça out of the country’s footballing Caipinrinha. The modern game and its day-to-day business is just as guilty as those choosing Brazil’s tactics.

We all want it to be there. We all want it to flourish. Football fans all over the world cling on to the idea of Brazilian flair. We need it to be there because when it is, football is just more fun.

And so, like children realising that Father Christmas might not be the man we once thought he was, it is hard to acknowledge the truth: Brazilian flair simply no longer exists and it hasn't for a very long time.

The unbelievable mauling the home fans had to witness in last night’s semi-final at the hands of Germany was of course a shock (when is a 7-1 win not a shock?) but the way Brazil played — bereft of any inventiveness or attacking derring-do — was only indicative of the way the nation has played their football for a very long time.

Sure we’ve all loved this World Cup. It’s been football at its best, and with a backdrop that so serves that romantic notion of football played as more than mere sport but as a celebration. Favelas where unworldly skills are invented by unworldly young footballers. The beach where tricks are so special, even the ocean applauds. Carnival, favelas and the beach are still all very real but a style of play adopted by the country in which they reside is no longer a reality.

Don’t just blame this current crop of players, though. Don’t just criticise Luiz Felipe Scolari for suddenly taking the Cachaça out of the country’s footballing Caipinrinha. The modern game and its day-to-day business is just as guilty as those choosing Brazil’s tactics.

Those young men who first kick whatever they can find in their favela or across that beach today no longer only dream of running rings around opponents at the Maracana — crossing the Atlantic is now the ultimate. Playing on Europe’s golden fields is what drives so many of the countries young footballers.

The last Brazilian team to truly play the game with flair was the side that lost to Italy in the latter stages in 1982. That was a side that when it played, fans all over the world could hear the samba drums. Socretes, Zico, Falcao, Eder, Junior et al; these were players who suddenly over one summer enthralled the world without taking home the trophy. Tanned legs, socks around their ankles, tricks and flicks. They had it all. And then — nearly to a man — they came to play for rich European clubs and it is a route far too travelled ever since.

Sure, the Selecao has gone on to win the World Cup twice since that ‘mishap’ in 1982. The 1994 side was far from beautiful, though, and relied on Dunga’s midfield authority as much as Romario’s goals — and the 2002 team, whilst housing Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho, had a certain European efficiency about it. “We haven’t had a squad at a World Cup that truly captured the nation’s imagination since that side in 1982,” agrees Enzo Ferreira, an older fan in Rio de Janeiro, “Don’t get me wrong, I would have loved to have won the tournament, but it has been very hard for many people my age to really fall in love with this team.”

Gelson Pires is the General Secretary at Brazilian club Internacional and he recognises that young footballers are leaving his shores too soon. “The fact is that young talent goes to Europe very early,” he says. “This is a problem and it is a solution. The problem is that clubs are losing young athletes whilst the solution is that clubs who produce players get money in return.”